Love Becomes You
by sereace
Summary: Because of who he was, he let her go--only to find out much, much later--that it was much ado about nothing.
1. Love Becomes You: 001

Title:                         Love Becomes You

Author:                     sereace

Warnings:                Unconventional pairing, unrequited love…_Please_, I beg of you, if you can't picture anyone else but the original pairings together, _don't_ read this anymore, then go on and flame me. _Or_, if you do flame me, at least be responsible about it. CCs are most welcome.

Notes:                      Timeline: When Lei went to Japan the first time in the Meteor Garden 1 series. Supposes that Lei is in good terms with his parents. 

* * *

He closed the folder with a flourish, a small, almost undetectable smile on his face, before reaching for the cup of hot, steaming, Japanese green tea. It was his eleventh cup on the seventh inch-thick folder he had assigned himself to go over for the three hours he had given himself, and frankly, even if he missed this mixture enough to give up a limb or two when he was in Taiwan, he was ready for a change. Today was definitely one of the days when he felt it unfortunate that the people around him would wait on their hands and feet just to give him what he liked. 

Or what they _thought_ he liked, at least. _'I'd bet half a hundred million dollars if they knew how I am yearning for a bottle of beer they'd wrestle with each other who would have the privilege, if it can be called as such, buying it.'_ A visual of a dozen or so people stepping over each other as they turn the whole town of Tokyo upside down for the most expensive, rarest bottle of beer danced across his mind, and he almost laughed out loud. 

Almost. 

He snuck a peek at the corner of his eyes at the figure of his father, who was currently hunched over his personal laptop, a glass of red wine within his reach. 

He wanted to do nothing but reach out, grab the glass, and drink the wine. But he knew that even the slightest flinch from his would not pass his father's attention, he just glared at his current object of desire. What was his father thinking when he declared the law that no employee of his would drink spirits during office hours? And that it is applicable to anyone else but him? _'It's unfair. It does not mean that since he's President of the entire family business, he can do anything he wants. I mean, I'm his son! I can do anything I want, too! And I want that glass of wine.'_ Then he noticed that the center of his attention is being raised up, up, up, until his peripheral vision met his father's face, and the rim of the glass met his father's lips, his mouth open, his throat making the notions that the wine was passing…

"You're distracted."

He was pulled out from his reverie, which was to pounce his father and demand him to spit the wine out and let _him_ drink the rest of the glass, with the soft yet firm voice he knew only too well. 

"No, I am not." He chose to answer, even though he knew it was of no use. Once his father says something, it was always a fact. _Always._

"You're one second late from finishing going over the reports, Lei. Don't give me that crap." There was a pause, before he raised his face to meet the eyes of his son. "Besides, you know I'm never wrong." 

Hua Ze Lei snorted, or as much a snort he could produce, if he was capable of it. "Do you even keep the timetable on how fast I do my math?"

"What makes you think so?!" Was the incredulous reply. But his father was grinning. 

Lei mockingly rolled his eyes. 

"Hua Ze Lei! You dare roll your eyes at your own father? What makes you think I keep a timetable on his fast you do your just your math? That's preposterous!"

Lei just sat there, waiting for the next barrage of words. He knew his father was far from finished. 

"Of course I don't do so! Not just your math! But also your reading! Your analysis skills! Your reaction time! Your chemistry!" His father stood up, and strode towards the bar situated at the corner of the office that looked like a suite, his glass on his left hand, and he reached for the bottle of red wine propped on the table. "By the way, I noticed that you're a little off with your chemistry lately. And you've _never_ been off with your chemistry." A pause as he refilled his glass, and Lei was wishing desperately he could do the same. "Not even when Jing left for France."

Lei's head snapped up to search his father's face, only to find him facing one of the offices' windows. 

"Don't act so surprised, Lei. You know how your mother insists on this…arrangement."

Lei sighed, defeated. He drank the rest of the contents of the cup, before rising from the leather-covered chair and joining his father. 

"I know," he started, facing the same window his father was, seeing the same view available to his father's gaze, "Tokyo is beautiful. It's been a long time."

His father nodded in agreement. "Yes it is."

There was silence as the father and son stood and admired the view presented to them, viewing the metropolis of one of the richest countries of the world from a place deprived by most. They were looking down from a place where everyone looked up to, desired and envied to be, and strived to stay. They were taking for granted what anybody else considered luxury, as luxury for them was out of anybody else's wildest dream and fantasy. 

Lei supposed he should consider himself lucky, but he could not, no matter how he tried. He grew up, breathed, and lived in this world. He was taught to, all his life, not to know any other way of living, any other way of life. 

"But not as beautiful as the one that occupies your thoughts."

It was a statement said in a tone he could not argue with, not that he could actually argue with his father. It was said just as the way a teacher would state that the sky is blue, or the way a priest would preach that there is God. So all he could do was let the comment slide, and hope that his father would not press on the matter. 

"She must be as stubborn as your mother."

Of course, he was only wishing that his father would not press on the matter. Not that he would mind any divine intervention…

"This stuff might work on other people, but not to the people who knows you." His father tilted his head to one side, looking at his son's profile. "You know I won't stop."

Lei sighed, before chuckling under his breath, slanting his head to meet his father's probing gaze. "I know."

They shared a smile identical to each other's; one of the few habits that professed to the world their kinship. Every physical aspect of Lei was of his mother—from his eyes, nose, lips, to the shape of his face—it's been said that Lei was his mother's masculine side by countless of people who were lucky enough to be graced with his mother's presence. 

"She is." He said, staring straight ahead, gaze focused on one of the many smaller buildings in front of his father's. 

His father chuckled, the sound resonating all over the suite. "I should find it hard to believe, that there's someone out there as stubborn as she is."

Lei smiled, almost glowing, his eyes lighting up. "I could not believe it myself either. The first time that I saw her, she was contemplating on how to kill F4 at the most brutal way as humanly possible."

"The very first human being who defied F4…a woman at that. Whoever thought someone could actually resist your charms?" The sardonic, yet jovial speech of the only woman in his life that he had, for as along as he could remember, loved as openly as was allowed, floated from across the room. 

Lei and his father shared a look. The woman they both loved had a knack for very well literally _popping_ out of nowhere. During the few times F3 visited while his mother was around, Xi Men, Mei Zhuo, and Ah Si had had their share of near-nervous breakdowns, heart attacks, and a list of more embarrassing incidents that happen in regular intervals whenever the Japanese aristocrat choose to make her presence known. Over the years Lei had managed to copy his mother's technique, but not master it quite yet. He had yet to pull the trick on her.

"Okaa-san." Lei greeted, turning around to face her.

"It's nice seeing you say it…hearing it." His mother started, sitting herself on one of the couches located near the mahogany conference table Lei and his father had been slaving on for three hours. "It's been so long."

Lei's smile widened, his dimples showing, as he strode towards where his mother was. "I'm sorry. I should visit more often."

His mother waved the comment off, slender hand gracefully gesturing for him to take a seat in front of her. "Don't take me seriously—I'm just a lovesick mother whose only wish in life is to be visited by her son more often."

Lei laughed softly at that as he leaned down when he finally reached her, and planted a soft kiss on her left cheek. He sat down on the sofa directly across hers. His father followed suit, only he sat down beside his wife.

"Excuse your mother. It had not crossed her mind that traveling to Japan more often would mean jetlags and fatigue."

Lei bit his lip to keep from laughing when his mother hit his father's arm, and the latter winced. 

"What was that for?!"

His father was ignored. His mother, the daughter of one of the most prominent and richest families in Japan, turned to look at him, her eyes staring intensely into his. He was helpless that he could only meet her gaze.

"Tell me about her. How she looks like. How she talks. What her hobbies are. What she likes. How you two met. And what's this I hear about her being as stubborn as I am?" 

Lei laughed, openly this time, as he raised his hands in the air, palms out, in a gesture to slow down. His father scolded his mother, saying that she could not expect her son to answer all of that.

"And why can't he? I am his mother. I have the right to know."

"Anata…"

"Okaa-san…"

They began at the same time, and Lei glanced at his father to see him nodding at him. He smiled in thanks.

"Okaa-san," he began, smiling fondly at his mother, before beginning. "She has long hair that reaches her waist. Her face always has a ready smile for those willing to look. Her eyes had shed tears for those who are too proud to, and by doing so cleansed her sight from the hypocrisies of this world. She lives for her parents, and she would gladly lay down her life for them. When she talks you have to listen, because the conviction in her voice is as strong as iron, and as unbendable as steel. When she says she will do something, even death would not deter her from accomplishing that task. Her determination to succeed in life, to be the person her parents want her to be, to prove to the world that she can live up to her name…" He closed his eyes, his mind painting a vivid image of her. Of her eyes crinkling in the corners when she smiles for him…

With his eyes closed, he did not see the look his parents exchanged, and the smile on their faces when they saw him drift off his own world. 

"From what I can gather, she's the perfect woman for you."

Lei opened his eyes to see his parents looking at him, a knowing twinkle in their eyes. He gave them a look of his own.

"You know about her already—her family background, her name, her likes, her dislikes—everything, down to what she wore the first day she went out of the nursery. Why do you have to ask me this?"

His father cleared his throat, and gave his mother a pointed look. His mother sighed, as she met his eyes.

"You know I do not believe in rumors, Lei."

"You do not trust you own people?" 

"Lei…" his father started. His mother shushed him.

"If it came from any other than the people involved, it is considered hearsay. You know how I believe that."

Lei sighed. He would never win an argument with these two. "I know." He looked at his mother steadily in the eye. "Thank you. For giving me the benefit of the doubt."

His mother smiled. "It's a privilege given to few. You're my son. You're allowed much more. Now tell me more about her. What's her name? Her mother's? Her father's? Any sisters or brothers?"

"Her name is…Shan Cai…" 

It was a half an hour, minus the questions his mother threw at him, before he finished telling his parents what he knew they probably already knew, and when he did, he stood up and went to the bar. His throat was as good as burning. He hasn't talked for that long in months. _'So my oratory skills are not as developed as my father. That's actually a blessing.'_ He reached for the bottle of red wine his father was drinking earlier on, and selected a wineglass from the shelf. As he was pouring his drink from the bottle, his mother spoke.

"She looks like the woman you love."

His head snapped up so abruptly that he felt the world spin for a moment before it settled. He stared, and it took him a moment to realize that the bottle was still tilted, his glass overflowing, and he was wasting perfectly good wine. He tipped the bottle, closed it with the cork, before reaching for the rag under the table.

"Aren't you going to answer for yourself, Lei?"

He took his time, making sure that the table was spotlessly clean, before he grasped the crystal goblet between his fingers. He sipped, swallowing at his own pace, enjoying the expectant look on his parents' faces. 

"Yes."

The three-letter word brought his parents out of their stupor, a smile spreading on their faces. He walked back to his former place, playing with the chalice, his legs crossed. He did not meet their gaze. 

His father got the message. "But?"

Lei smiled inwardly. His father…his father was the best father he could ask for. If he had been different, then the Hua Ze Lei the world knows would not be the Hua Ze Lei that he was. It was sometimes an advantage, sometimes an inconvenience. 

He finished his drink down to the last drop. His mother was calm, but Lei knew how much she wanted to wring his neck. His father was more composed, secure in the knowledge that his son would speak, sooner or later. 

He smiled slightly, his mouth turning up at the corners, as he crossed his arms above his chest and looked at them. 

"She's Ah Si's girlfriend."

There was a silence, until his mother exasperatedly groaned out. "Trust those spies to report everything to me."

His father was a different story, however. "Of all the woman in Taiwan, why did you have to fall in love with Ah Si's girlfriend? And why is it that we received no reports of Ah Si having her as a girlfriend? What happened to those spies? Did you thrash all of them? And more importantly, do you know what the consequence are for falling in love with a Dao Ming branded woman?"

* * *

Notes: Okay. Since I'm quite sure that the series Meteor Garden, _not_ the anime HYD, did not, in anyway give _any_ characterization of Hua Ze Lei's parents, I fashioned his parents in such a way that their attitude would fit in my story. If this offends you, then I'm deeply sorry. Dedicated to _dang_, _jfish, joie, pyn, tricia, ate eden, my namesake!,_ and to all those who had the patience to read until this part. I can't promise to update real soon, what with college and all, but I'll try my best to have it out by next week. I _hope._


	2. Love Becomes You: 002

Title: Love Becomes You 

Author: sereace

Warnings and Notes: Since I find it quite improbable that you'd be reading the _second_ chapter of this fic without reading the first, I just tell you to read the first chapter for warnings. *sheepish grin* 

* * *

The most drastic reaction he could do was to blink in astonishment at the scene before him. 

His father was having a frenzy, a reaction reserved for his business dealings, meetings and conferences with dignitaries he did not even want to hear, much less see, of. 

Her mother was ranting of how not one outside their family could be trusted, or even depended on. 

But amidst the rants, the outbursts of emotions, and the tirade of his parents, Hua Ze Lei found it _extremely_ strange that not once, _not once_, did he hear anything in the lines of: _How could you have fallen in love with someone so poor?_

Not that, of course, he actually _wanted_ to hear it from his parents, but at least, he knew, or prepared himself, how to deal should that particular scene arise. Defending Shan Cai, he could handle. It was second nature to him—breathing, the first. But having his parents _rejoicing_ the fact that he finally found someone he loved, and had the words to tell them personally, regardless of the girl being a part of the world they looked down upon was…unnerving. Scary, almost. 

"Hua Ze Lei! What have you to say for yourself?"

He blinked in the general direction of his father, and met slightly unfocused eyes whose color was only slightly darker than his. _'He was asking me something?'_

"Forget it, dear. He's not listening." Was the cryptic and amused remark of his mother. 

His father sighed. "I know. The moment we stopped ranting, he started dozing off."

Lei raised his brows. He had indeed started dozing off when his parents stopped ranting. He allowed a small grin. _'Strange.'_

His mother stared at him, then at his father, then back at him, before she sighed wearily and pressed a couple of fingers to her temple. "Alright, since you both know each other _so_ well that you make _me_ feel an outsider, why don't _you,_" she said, pointedly staring at Hua Ze Lei's father with a raised brow, "Answer for your son?"

Lei turned to his father expectantly, arms crossed over his chest. '_Let's see him get out of this.'_ He thought profoundly, delighting in the fact that there could actually be someone in this world that could intimidate his father.

"Don't you think it unfair, anata, that you are not giving your son the chance to answer for himself?" His father stated, smiling amusedly at his mother, who was, to say the least, _not_ amused.

"I would, if he was listening to me." 

"He was, he just couldn't differentiate what the rant and the questions were."

"Are you telling me that my oratory skills are of no match to yours?" Her mother stood, her weight on one leg, hands on her hips. Lei wanted to laugh, but he knew if he did, then it would be him on the grilling pot, not his father. That wouldn't even remotely be entertaining. It would be downright _scary._

"Now wherever did you get that idea, koi?" His father started, palms up to placate his mother. "If you should be blaming someone it should be our son here who," the business conglomerate started, pointing to his direction, "I daresay is having a good time seeing us argue for his sake."

Lei opened his mouth to protest, but closed it shut when he saw his mother face him. He fell back to the plush cushion and searched for something interesting to look at on the carpet. Like its pattern…three squares on interloping pattern, alternating with five, which is connected to another three…

"What, pray tell, my dear son, is so interesting with that pattern of the carpet? Are you trying to count the number of the squares? There are one-hundred fifty-five squares in groups of threes, one-hundred and fifty-six in groups of fives, and they cover the area of one-thousand thirty five square meters…"

"We all know your IQ is well beyond 200, anata. There is no point in flaunting that." There was barely covered sarcasm in the tone of his father's voice that was also mockingly said that Lei had to chuckle out loud. His mother turned to face his father, an evil glint in her eyes. 

'_Uh-oh.'_ Was the only eloquence he could think of as he saw his mother start towards his father. 

"I still love you, koi, even if _your_ IQ is merely 200 flat."

"Your point being?" Was the heretic answer.  

"What intelligence our son has is because of me, you couldn't possibly have enough to share to your son since what you have is barely enough for you." His mother answered back _flippantly_. How exactly could a forty-something woman married to a forty-something-almost-fifty man answer back so _flippantly?_ The only thing missing is a flip of the hair and his mother could well pass to be a Ying-De _student._ _A student!_

If there had to be a sore spot to his father, it was the fact that his wife was fifteen-points, IQ tests-wise, higher than he was. And it was then that Lei took his cue to intervene. This IQ-thing with his parents had not really ended, ever since it started. _Eh?_ Scratch that—he also had enough of their smart-ass comments that were a tad bit too close to being teenagers themselves. It just rubbed the heir of the Hua Ze family the wrong way that his _parents_ acted way _he_ should act. 

"Actually, my being autistic back then was due to having too much of the intellectual genes, and none of the emotional genes."

His father heaved in a sigh of relief. "How long were you planning on not actively participating? 

"Until you could still answer back. Besides, it was nice seeing you on the defensive."

"That's my boy! I knew there was another reason why I was given someone like you."

"Mother, my bank account is not large enough to buy you the entire collection of _Swarovski_ for the next five years."

The brows of his mother furrowed, as she took her former position. "Which bank account is that? We'll have fix that, shouldn't we, anata?"

"It would pose no problem. We'll fix it as soon as Lei fixes this scam."

Lei's mother blinked. "Right." _Swarovski_ collection forgotten, she turned back to his son. "Well? We've been dragged from the conversation long enough. What have you to say for yourself?"

"Regarding what? Why your spies had not reported everything? Or the part where why I had to fall for Ah Si's girlfriend? What the consequences were? Or am I ready to throw everything I had all my life for her?" Lei said, holding up four fingers. "There are six, seven more, but we'll start from these four."

"I asked all that?" His mother directed at him, eyebrows raised. 

Lei shrugged. "For someone who's IQ is 215, you can forget fairly fast. But yes, you did ask all of them, and more, if I am allowed to disclose."

He was answered with a similar shrug. "Alright, and no, you are not allowed to disclose."

Lei smiled unabashedly. "If you say so, mother." He paused, gathering his thoughts, before speaking again. "Your spies…have been blocked by the intelligence of Ah Si's family's special police. As of the moment, Mei Zhuo contacted me and informed me that Ah Si has been incommunicado for at the least seventeen hours. I talked to him a couple of hours ago. I'm due to fly over in three hours. Regarding the scam, I was able to find out where the error has been done, the people responsible, and who are concerned, and those wrongly accused. We have been cheated 2.7 Billion dollars. The report is right here," he said, patting the folder beside him, before he went on, the hardening look in his father's eyes not escaping his own. Lei chose to continue, the punishment of those who had crossed his father's path was not his business. At least, not yet. "Falling in love…falling in love is not falling in love if you know. I did not know how I cared, did not know how much I meant every word I said then, which I thought I had only spoken to provoke Ah Si, until it was too late. I thought I loved Chin, and I did. It just wasn't _love_…" He trailed off, unsure of where he was heading. He did not know these things himself…how could he bare his soul to others when he himself is unsure? 

His eyes met his mother's. It was smiling. Encouraging. "We understand, Lei." 

He smiled back, nodding his head. "Why I had to fall for Shan Cai…is because of Shan Cai. If perhaps she was a tad bit different than who she was, then maybe…but she wasn't. And the consequence was to let go. Ah Si needs her more than I could ever do. She is the only happiness he could turn to, could ever come close to holding. In some ways, I'm luckier than he  is, in some ways, he's luckier than I am…I am contented to be the pillar she leans on when she stumbles, when she feels she needs to catch her breath, when she feels she needs to rest, to just feel…"

His father peered into him. "To be Ah Si's shadow? Are you satisfied of that?"

He met his father's eyes, and nodded. "It's enough for me. It is as close as I can get…I would rather watch her from the edge of the world than lose sight of her altogether."

"And what of Ah Si? How certain are you that he would be better for her than you could be? And who are you to decide whoever would be better for her? Whether it be Dao Ming Si or Hua Ze Lei, don't you think she has the right to think for herself?" His mother hurled the questions at him without mercy, and Lei could feel himself snap, begin to regret his decision. Again.

"Because I have hurt her…broken her in the most vicious way a man could ever break a woman."

His mother turned to her. "And how is that?"

Lei closed his eyes, feeling the pain wash over his entire being. "I let her go."

* * *

Notes: Thanks to all those who reviewed…to pam (caramel), for her unfaltering support…


	3. Love Becomes You: 003

Title:                         Love Becomes You

Author:                     sereace

Warnings:                Unconventional pairing, unrequited love…_Please_, I beg of you, if you can't picture anyone else but the original pairings together, _don't_ read this anymore, then go on and flame me. _Or_, if you do flame me, at least be responsible about it. CCs are most welcome.

Notes:                      Timeline: When Lei went to Japan the first time in the Meteor Garden 1 series. Supposes that Lei is in good terms with his parents. 

* * *

"Why?"

Such a simple question really, but Lei wondered why, _exactly_, can't he answer that. Not that he didn't know what to reply, quite the opposite in fact. He knew the answer, _knew _it without doubt, he just _couldn't_ say it—them. So he settled for silence. He wondered idly when it would last.

"Because Ah Si is your friend?"

Lei looked up and met the gaze of his mother. He was sure she could read him, as he was sure he could not read _her._

"Or because she _did_ go?"

The statement was like a knife hurled straight to his heart. Truth hurts. 

"For someone so intelligent, you can be so stupid."

The words rushed out of his mouth before he could even think about what he wanted to say. "Mother, you cannot possibly know—"

"Yes, I could, and yes, I do. The only difference between us is I did _something_ before the situation became irreparable." 

"What difference would it make if she did chose me? She suffered enough from Dao Ming Feng—and we live in the same world." He shot back, his tone very much the same as his mother's—forceful, if not bitter.

An eyebrow arched in question, as he saw, at the corner of his eye, his father's sudden movement. His shoulders tense, the patriarch of the Hua Ze family looked like he was contemplating on bashing his head on the table, or bashing his wife's head on the table. Lei was intrigued—his father was never like this. In fact, his father _never_ tensed, period. 

"Who am I, Lei?" There was almost a sly note in the way she said it, and it made Lei wary of her intentions.

He hated these kind of questions—it was always the simple question that catches one in a trap, however small it is. But no matter, if his mother can elude this, so can he. So he answered plainly, passively, "My mother."

"And who is your mother?" 

"Hua Ze Ame, a Lady in the Royal Court of Japan. The cousin to the fifth degree of the Reigning Royal Family."

"What else?"

"The wife of Hua Ze Chang, top ten of the richest men in the whole world."

A twinkle in his mother's eyes, before she laced her fingers, and laid her hands on top of her knees. "I am _Hua Ze_ Ame, as much as I am _Hanazawa_ Ame, am I not?"

Lei nodded, albeit tentatively. 

"Your grandfather is Hanazawa Shinji, fourth in line to the throne, and your grandmother is Tenno Reina, daughter of the aristocrat Tenno Hasegawa and Kaioh Makiko, correct?"

Again, Lei reaffirmed what he knew since he was born. 

"You know all these, do you not, my son?" Hanazawa Keiko started, starting to rise from her seat. "What you do not know is Kaioh Makiko was a daughter of the cousin of the man you know as your great-great-great-grandfather Kaioh Akira."

Lei looked at his mother, his temples beginning to throb with where he was thinking this conversation would lead to. "Yes, I do not know that."

Hua Ze Ame stifled a wry chuckle. "Of course you do not. Why else would I tell you?"

Hua Ze Chang looked at his wife and then his son, before he sighed. This was going to be interesting. 

"Mother…"

"Ikari Amaya's father, Kaioh Takasugi, was the only cousin of a daimyo in the Bakamatsu era. Her husband had died while on travel, ambushed by a group of samurais who worked for the rival of our family. At the same time she was pregnant, Kaioh Akira's wife died, due to complications of child-bearing. Kaioh Akira's wife was five months pregnant, and so was Ikari Amaya."

Lei could practically see where his mother was going, but he was intrigued as well. He never would have thought his mother's family would have a history as intricately patterned as this. 

"The family disputes were growing, and internal battles began to grow out of proportions. The question as to who would rise to the title daimyo was undecided, and naturally, everyone wanted to rise to power, to take the title for himself, more for pride than for honor. And that was going on without them knowing of the fact that Kaioh Akira's wife had died, as well as the child she carried, technically the heir of Kaioh Akira." She paused, turning to Lei. "So you could begin to imagine…"

Lei nodded. Yes, he very well could. Dimly, he noticed his father rising and heading for the bar. His mother continued.

"Ikari Amaya was drowning in her despair—her husband was dead, she was eight months pregnant, and her father was beginning to get buried with his debts. Kaioh Takasugi was a good-hearted man, but he was not made as the Daimyo, the head of their family, for no simple reason. Though he was almost a decade older than Akira…he reveled in gambling, in the women, in all that money could buy, and that was with the fact he depended only on what his cousin gives him."

Hua Ze Ame paused, and took a dainty sip of her wine from the flute. "A scandal was threatening to break out that would have rendered the Kaioh family in shambles—Takasugi had impregnated a woman-child, barely sixteen of age, while he was nearly in his thirties. It was unforgivable sin then, and is reparable only by death." 

Lei saw a flicker of disdain in his mother's eyes. 

"Only reparable by the death…of both parties." She started, voice barely above a whisper. At the far corner of the room, He Ze Chang watched his wife under hooded eyes. He did not want this part of the story himself, and he knew how much she loathed this as well. It was better to stay away anyway, until she gets to the part where he enters their family.

"They lived in hiding—all the four of them, under the reason that many wanted their deaths. The arrangement started out with five people involved—Kaioh Takasugi, Ikari Yoji, Kaioh-Ikari Amaya, Kaioh Akira, and Kaioh Makiko. Ten months later, only three remained. Kaioh Takasugi, Kaioh-Ikari Amaya, and Kaioh Akira. One was pregnant, the other gambled and drank, the last attempted to hold on to the family he knew he had to lead. All three were beginning to wallow up in their own misery. Their relatives were demanding to see Kaioh Akira's wife, and eventually his heir, even if they argued the fact was still to be decided. They were all in danger of being disowned by the Kaiohs…they had not allowed any visitor, messenger whatsoever to come in contact with them for the last nine months. In a last desperate attempt, when Amaya was giving birth, she made a deal with Akira—that he keep the child, and keep the family together. Akira would not have agreed, for the child was a girl, but Amaya begged him, assured him that she would not have it any other way."

"She was dying, she knew that—she had lost too much blood, been in labor for so long, and she wanted her child to have a future. Out of reverence to her adoptive uncle's wife, she had named her child Makiko."

"Obaasan." Lei said monotonously. 

Hua Ze Ame, once Hanazawa Ame, nodded.

"Ikari Yoji—what family did he come from?"

Lei's mother smiled. "From a long-line of samurais. He guarded your obaasan's life then, before they fell in love and got married."

"He had no title, yet he was accepted into the family…"

"Kaioh Akira was a good hearted man. He loved Amaya like his own child, even when their age difference hardly differed. His word was the law, and those who disobeyed wished their fate met death."

Lei pressed fingers to his temple, before slowly rising from his seat. The woman—his ancestor, reminded him much of Shan Cai…how she would give anything for someone who mattered to her…and how he gave that up, one of the primary reasons being the family conflict—second to that Ah Si was in love with her, and she was in love with Ah Si. He stared down at the figure of his mother, his face as stoic as usual, but his eyes…"Which is why you never mentioned how Shan Cai would never fit in our world—because you knew, you know, that you could make the family accept Shan Cai, being a direct descendant of Kaioh Akira, and that the power he yielded then, you still have now."

Hua Ze Ame looked at her son, and met the glare with her own eyes burning in intensity, wherein behind it was curiosity—why the steely-edged tone? She nodded slowly. "Yes."

"And that as well is saying I gave her up for nothing."

"Lei." The voice of his father seemed distant, so far away. It barely registered. He reached for his goblet, but did not drink it. 

"I gave her up, for Ah Si. I did not fight in the least, knowing the fact that if I did, and if I did win her, even in courtesy of Dao Ming Feng, this family would not have accepted her. I am bound to this family—if I do not take over we will fall, and I would not be able to fight for her as Ah Si have."

He looked at his father, his eyes the only part of his body expressing _something_ that supported the subtle anger in his words. Neither parent noticed the hand grasping the glassware was tightening. "I gave her up to have a better life with Ah Si, thinking that she would have an easier life with Dao Ming Feng than with the Hanazawas, and now you are telling me that whatever decision I make the people I have foremost on my list why I cannot be with Shan Cai would accept?"

"Lei…" Came the placating tone of his father. His mother only watched with mild interest, her sense of foreboding unheeded.

Hua Ze Chang crossed the room in quick strides, and soon he lay a hand, comfortingly, he hoped, on his son's shoulders.

In that instant, the sound of glass breaking filled the room, and if one listened carefully, would hear the sound of blood dripping from a hand to the carpeted floor. 

* * *

Notes: 

Chapter 2: Swarovski Diamonds are not mine, if it were, let's just say I won't be slaving for my Chemistry grades right now. *snickers*

Reviewers: Thanks a million you guys! I know I take my time updating…I always do. And it seems, even if my dreams, sleeping, awake, or otherwise, are plagued with thoughts of these two wonderful couple being together, my mind just won't cooperate, organize itself, and just write. 

To all the special mention people: you all know who you are. Thank you for believing in me as much as you all do. It means a lot. 


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